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Friday, March 31, 2017

The strategy to pass the Republican health reform policy,
which was not really health care reform but a destruction of Medicaid combined
with a tax cut for the rich was to first ram a bill through the House. So no hearings,
no amendments, just introduce and pass.
The next step would have been to ram the law through the Senate, same
lack of input, and then adjourn for the early spring recess (as compared to the
mid spring recess and the late spring recess which precedes the early summer
recess). The Republicans could then go
home to voters and hope their wrath would fade before next year’s elections.

But it turned out this so-called health care reform was
deeply unpopular. So in killing the bill
those who opposed it did the GOP a great favor.
But Republicans may be too dumb to take their victory lap. They are talking about reviving the bill and
voting on it, like in a couple of days.

Now no one thinks this will happen, but in the crazy world
of the GOP, who think God is talking to them and telling them to remove health
care from tens of millions this is possible.
After all the whole purpose here is for the House members to say they did
their job and leave it up to the Senate to save them from their idiocy.

Energy Department climate office bans use of phrase ‘climate
change’

“A supervisor at the Energy
Department's international climate office told staff this week not to use the
phrases "climate change," "emissions reduction" or
"Paris Agreement" in written memos, briefings or other written communication,
sources have told POLITICO.

Employees of DOE’s Office of
International Climate and Clean Energy learned of the ban at a meeting Tuesday,
the same day President Donald Trump signed an executive order at EPA
headquarters to reverse most of former President Barack Obama's climate
regulatory initiatives. Officials at the State Department and in other DOE
offices said they had not been given a banned words list, but they had started
avoiding climate-related terms in their memos and briefings given the new
administration's direction on climate change.”

See if you can’t say its name, it won’t happen. Just ask that guy what's his name, Valde . .

Everyone now knows that the major goal of the Ryan/Trump
health care bill was to take health insurance away from millions and to raise
the costs of those who remained on individual coverage. We know this because the CBO scored the
Republican bill and after they released their results Republicans including
Ryan and Trump increased their advocacy for the measure.

With the defeat of the bill the WSJ
is documenting how Republican will still be able to gut the individual
market and attack low income and disabled people on Medicaid. And a new goal is now added, place the blame
on the out of power ineffective Democrats.

“The Trump administration could
weaken a requirement that most Americans pay a penalty for not having
insurance. It could usher in work requirements for Medicaid recipients and ease
a directive that insurers cover such services as contraception. And it could
also allow an end to certain subsidies that insurers get, which could quickly
cause the individual markets to crater.

Some of these steps, such as new
likely requirements for Medicaid enrollees, are already under way. Republican
leaders have long said administrative changes are a key part of their plan to
change the health-care system. Now it may be largely the only one left.

Dr. Price and Seema Verma, the
administrator of HHS’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, recently
wrote a letter to states assuring them of support if they request waivers to
impose work requirements on recipients of Medicaid, the federal-state health
program for the poor and disabled.”

The most damaging thing the Republican can do is to
eliminate enforcement of the individual mandate, the requirement that everyone
have health insurance. This will result
in low risk individuals withdrawing from the exchanges, and the remaining
individuals will then face much higher premiums. The cherry on top of this sundae, the GOP
will blame Dems.

Gutting health care and being able to blame the Democrats,
it’s a Republican dream come true. The right wing propoganda machine is already gearing up, heck they may pubish the stories before they happen.

At Penn State, for many people including a Trustee nothing is more important than protecting the University from criticism that it allowed a football coach to sexually molest boys on the campus. Now here's one who's piling on, no not on PSU, on the victims.

"Penn State trustee Albert L. Lord said he is “running out of sympathy” for the “so-called” victims of former Nittany Lions assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, according to an email sent to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Lord, a former CEO of student loan company Sallie Mae, also defended Graham Spanier, the dismissed Penn State president who was convicted of one count of child endangerment last week for his handling of complaints about Sandusky.

"Running out of sympathy for 35 yr old, so-called victims with 7 digit net worth," Lord said in the email sent Saturday. "Do not understand why they were so prominent in trial. As you learned, Graham Spanier never knew Sandusky abused anyone."

Penn State has of course disowned these vile comments. But Mr. Lord has been put on the Board by the alumni, and he is running again. So the issue in the election to the Board at PSU is what is more important, football or sexual abuse of children. Yeah, we know for a football factory like Penn State just how that will turn out.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

The propoganda machine that now characterizes the Trump folks may be the source of recent news. The mystery of the release of the Trump tax return can be explained but not proven by the suggestion that the Trumpies released it to show that at least in one year Trump paid taxes. And now it looks like the White House may have given Rep Nunes info that was supposed to exonerate Trump in his now totally discredited claim that Obama surveiled him. From The Hill.

"Nunes struggled to provide an explanation for the unusual trip on Monday even as Democrats demanded that he step aside as leader of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

The visit raised questions about whether the White House itself was the source of the mysterious intelligence that Nunes, but no one else on Capitol Hill, has seen. Nunes has vowed to protect his source while offering contradictory descriptions of what the documents reveal."

Wow, just when you think they have reached rock bottom something else comes along. And now we know why even Trump doesn't trumpet the Nunes info as support. Even he is not dumb enough to take this poisoned fruit to dinner.

The greed, avarice and indifference of those who sponsor
robocalling is unlimited. And now the
report in the WSJ is that they are disrupting at least one 911 operation in
Florida.

“For
about two months last fall, as many as 500 robocalls flooded the 911 system in Florida’s Palm
BeachCounty,
pitching everything from dental insurance to vacation packages, said Chuck
Spalding, director of technical services for the county’s 911 system.

While handling genuine
emergencies, operators were also receiving those automated telemarketing calls.
In one example, after the operator answered, the robocall began: “Hi, this is
Heather. I’m calling from the dealer processing department regarding your vehicle’s
warranty. We sent you a final notice in the mail letting you know that your
warranty has expired.”

911 -Can you hold please while we take this robo call Congress wants us to answer

Yes this is illegal, and it ought to be easy enough to
stop. Just respond to the call, learn
the sponsor and throw a few butts in jail for a couple of years. So why blame Congress for this ugly practice.

“Palm BeachCounty, home to about 1.4 million
people, fields about 100,000 911 calls a month. The robocalls were “frustrating
for the call takers, especially when they’re busy,” Mr. Spalding said.

In 2012, the FCC voted to
create a do-not-call registry for 911’s 10-digit numbers, so telemarketers
could scrub them from their calling lists. That registry hasn’t been created,
however, because Congress denied the FCC’s request for $600,000 to develop it,
an FCC spokesman said.”

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Now that they have failed on health care reform Republicans are looking to fail on tax reform. For them tax reform is cutting taxes on the wealthiest, and the conservatives who were all worried about the national debt under Obama now don't care. But that is not even the worst of their idiocy. Look a this from the WaPo.

"Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) hinted at that last month on CNN, suggested he would be willing to consider new spending on some of Trump's priorities once taxes had been reduced. "Those spending pieces, we'll debate those coming up — the military, the wall, the infrastructure plan — but you've got to see tax reform in place first," Brat told CNN last month. "Otherwise, we can't afford it."
Yes this man is saying that unless the Congress reduces revenues the nation cannot afford to spend more money. In what universe does that make sense? Oh, the Republican universe, reality is optional there.

How gullible were the voters in coal states like West Virginia and Kentucky
to vote for Trump. Pretty gullible.
Everyone else knew Trumpie didn’t care for coal miners and their
families and their economy. But he
whispered sweet things in their ears and they voted for him. Here
is their reward.

Earl Gohl (C), co-director of the Appalachian Regional Commission, is participating in a coding demo with Interapt trainees in Paintsville, Kentucky, U.S. on March 13, 2017. REUTERS/Valerie Volcovici

"President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating funding for
economic development programs supporting laid-off coal miners and others in Appalachia, stirring fears in a region that supported him
of another letdown on the heels of the coal industry’s collapse.

The 2018 budget proposal submitted to Congress by
the White House on Thursday would cut funds to the Appalachian Regional
Commission (ARC) and the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The
Washington-based organizations are charged with diversifying the economies of
states like West Virginia and Kentucky to help them
recover from coal’s decline.

The proposed cuts would save the federal government $340 million
and come as the Republican president seeks to slash a wide array of federal
programs and regulations to make way for increased military spending.

But they are perceived by some in Appalachia
as a betrayal of his promises to help coal miners.

"Folks that live in Appalachia
believe that the ARC belongs to them," said federal ARC Co-Chair Earl
Gohl, bemoaning the proposed cut. "It's really their organization."

So will these people change their minds and realize that
they have been betrayed? No way. They would rather suffer than admit they were
wrong and the Dems were right.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Confused - So is the Incompetent White House That Knows Nothing About Health Care

To listen to Trumpie is to believe the Republican health care bill was just great, exactly what he had been promising. But then when it crashed and burned, well it was a bad deal.

“I think the president understood that where we were, that while you can get a deal at the time, that sometimes a bad deal is worse than getting a deal,” Spicer continued. “And I think he smartly recognized that what was on the table was not going to be keeping with the vision that he had, and so he decided that this was not the time and that a deal was not at hand"Huh? But no to worry Trump is looking forward to winning, that is to start winning, so far he ain't winning.

From Politico

Spicer: Trump 'eager' for legislative wins

Gosh, Trump looks forward to having a Republican Senate and a Republican House pass Republican bills. Gosh, what a triumph that would be against just incredible odds. Yeah right.

Charging $89,000 for a drug that costs less than $2,000 in Overseas Markets

Ok Donnie, you said you were going to do something about high drug prices, well here's your chance.

"Marathon Pharmaceuticals LLC says it will charge $89,000 annually in the U.S. for a decades-old steroidal drug that was approved for U.S. sale for the first time on Thursday, a price that is as much as 70 times higher than the drug’s price overseas.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the drug, called deflazacort, to treat a rare type of muscular dystrophy that affects some 12,000 boys in the U.S., most of whom die in their 20s and 30s. The drug isn’t a cure, but it has been shown to improve muscle strength compared with a placebo, the FDA said in a statement announcing the approval."

And what about the CEO of the company, well he thinks he's doing everyone a great favor.

"Marathon Chief Financial Officer Babar Ghias defended the price in an interview. He said the company will likely receive much less in net revenue than its $89,000-per-patient list price, after providing discounts to government insurers and financial assistance to patients who can’t afford the drug.

The company will start selling the medicine under the brand name Emflaza in March, Mr. Ghias said.

Mr. Ghias, a former mergers-and-acquisitions banker, said the company showed restraint in how it priced the drug. Other new drugs for so-called orphan diseases, which affect fewer than 200,000 people nationally, have carried price tags of $300,000 annually and higher, he said.

“It’s modestly priced for an orphan drug,” Mr. Ghias said."

Gee, Mr. Ghias is a former M&A banker, who would have guessed? Babar Ghias, another named to be added to the deplorables list. As for action by Trump, well don't hold your breath. As for action by his HHS Secretary, well that guy probably bought stock in the company. As for those who suffer from MD, well your money or your life.

Paul Ryan is a near perfect House Speaker when his party is
not in power. He can pontificate and
polish his false persona as a man of ideas.
But when he has to deliver, the bankruptcy of his intellect goes center
stage for all to see.

After the debacle of so-called health care reform, which was
actually a huge tax cut for the wealthy combined with the evisceration of
Medicaid Paulie No-Nuts (apologies to the Sopranos) still had the support of
the Trumpster. Well, maybe. See Trumpie publicly said he was supporting
Ryan, but
then he sent out this tweet.

In her commentary, Pirro took aim squarely at Ryan for the
bill’s failure.

“Speaker Ryan, you come in with all
your swagger and experience and you sell 'em a bill of goods, which ends up a
complete and total failure, and you allow our president in his first 100 days
to come out of the box like that, based on what?” she said. “Your legislative
expertise, your knowledge of the arcane ins and outs of the bill
writing-process? Your relationships? What? Your drinks at the Hay Adams with
your pals?”

Not very subtle way of the Cowardly Lion President getting
the message to Paul. But if Trump did
not have the courage to tell Ryan these things to his face we guess the next
best way is to use an obscure Fox News host.

Monday, March 27, 2017

What can be said about the crash and burn of Paulie and the
Health Care Nuts? Well there’s this

The
bill failed for the simple reason that it was a bad bill. At the end it had the support of 17% of
the public. Even Republicans can
understand 17%.

Republicans
came away from their meetings with the President amazed at his near total
lack of understanding of health care.
The rest of us were amazed that they were amazed.

The
Republicans actually won here. Had
this bill been approved they would have been tarred with a policy that had
no redeeming values.

The
challenge for VP Pence is to see if there is any way in which he can suck
up more to Trump.

Plan B
for the GOP is to blame future problems in the health care exchanges on
the Democrats. To assist in this
HHS will do everything in its power to destroy individual health care
policies. They don’t care about a
few million people losing health care, their goal is tens of millions
losing health care.

The Bad News: You Ain't Got Insurance, You Ain't Wealthy, You Ain't Going to Get It

For an illustration of the idiocy in America's health care system the story of low dose aspirin and prescription drugs is a vital lesson. Low dose aspirin costs about 50 cents a month and is very effective at preventing blood clots that cause all sorts of health problems. But a prescription drug is much better, per report in the WSJ.

In a study of 3,365 patients from about 30 countries, presented at an annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology here Saturday, researchers said a low dose of a blood thinner called rivaroxaban reduced the risk of a recurrence by about 70% compared with aspirin, without increasing the risk of bleeding. The patients, whose median ages were 59 or 60, had already been on blood thinners for up to a year; it was unclear whether they needed further treatment.

The researchers followed the patients for a year and found that 1.5% of patients on 20 milligrams of rivaroxaban daily, and 1.2% of patients on 10 milligrams daily, had a recurring blood clot. By contrast, 4.4% of patients on aspirin had recurrences. The number of patients who experienced bleeding was similar in the rivaroxaban and aspirin groups.

So what's the problem? Well the prescription drug costs about $5,000 a year. Oh. That. One can just imagine how giddy Trump and Ryan are that millions of Americans could lose health insurance coverage that reduces that cost to a manageable level.

Redefining and upping his game with respect to crassness,
apparently the President of the United
States gave the head of the German
government a bill when she visited with him.
Really, unless
the Sunday Times of London is joking (and they never joke) the Commander in
Clueness gave Ms. Merkel a real bill.

Germany slams ‘intimidating’ £300bn White House bill

Donald Trump is insistent that other Nato countries increase their military spendingALEX WONGTrumpie Shows Off his very small hands to merkelshe is not impressed

Donald Trump
handed the German chancellor Angela Merkel a bill — thought to be for more than
£300bn — for money her country “owed” Nato for defending it when they met last
weekend, German government sources have revealed.

No, you cannot make this stuff up. Actually, you can make this stuff up but no
one would believe you.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Nothing says more about how America’s willingness to put
college sports above education and morality than the Penn State case where a
football coach molested boys in the shower room of the athletic department and
the school covered it up. Now the former
president of PennState
has been found guilty of a crime in covering up the abuse in order to
protect the football program.

See, he was told about at least one incident but chose to do
nothing. That’s right, nothing.

A jury convicted former Penn State PresidentGraham Spanieron one count of child endangerment for
his handling of a 2001 complaint involving assistant football coachJerry Sandusky,who was later convicted of
child sex abuse.

The verdict closes another
chapter in the criminal cases stemming from the Sandusky scandal, which first rocked the
university in 2011. The jury in Dauphin County Court in Harrisburg acquitted Mr. Spanier, 68 years
old, on separate child endangerment and conspiracy counts. He faces a maximum
sentence of five years in prison.

Prosecutors said Mr. Spanier
broke the law by not telling child welfare authorities in 2001 about a
complaint that Mr. Sandusky acted inappropriately with a boy in a PennState
shower. They said he wanted to protect the university’s reputation.

Former Penn State President Graham Spanier leaves the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa., on Thursday.PHOTO: MATT ROURKE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Evil Wears Brooks Brothers or Something Like ItWonder if His Wife plans on a long shower after toching him?

Hopefully this contemptible man will spend a lot of time in
jail. And hopefully everyone will learn
a lesson. But don’t count on either of
these things happening, as leniency flows to people like Mr. Spanier and very
little will stop the march to collecting millions from an athletic program at
major colleges.

Higher education for state supported universities is in crisis in this nation as Republicans have taken control of more and more state governments. But in Illinois it is a horrific disaster because government is split between a Republican governor and a Democratic legislature. Here is the result.

With the budget stalemate in Illinois in its 21st month, public universities in the state are going beyond belt-tightening to deal with a funding drought that has no end in sight.

Campuses already have pressed pause on new construction and stopped hiring for vacant positions. Now, universities including Northeastern Illinois, Governors State and Southern Illinois are looking to fixes like hiking tuition, cutting academic programs or laying off student workers.

“We are in a crisis situation,” said Beth Purvis, the state’s education secretary. “The next set of cuts will affect outcomes for our postsecondary students.”

So what to do? Well how about going after the least amount of savings in a way that affects the hardest working students.

The Chicago school must cut $8.2 million to meet payroll through June. It will temporarily lay off 300 student workers during spring break and force about 1,100 employees to take a total of eight furlough days in an effort to save $2.8 million.

Amy Sticha, a biology major who works about 20 hours a week in a lab on campus, has been putting in applications at area bars and restaurants, and even at a bike tour company, in case her campus job falls through altogether.

“I have no idea if I will still have a job a month from now, and I’d like to have a backup,” said Ms. Sticha, who earns $10.50 an hour at the lab, which she says covers a big part of her rent and tuition.

"The changes were offered in an attempt to attract support from the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus, a group of about 40 Republicans who have so far mostly opposed the repeal-and-replace bill because it retained too much of the structure of the Affordable Care Act. It was not clear Friday whether the changes were sufficient to appease that group. There will be no amendments allowed on the floor." (emphasis added)

Amazing What Conservatives Can Do When They Really Try to Screw the Public

As the House scrambled last night to make changes to their health care bill to make it even more offensive so that conservatives would support it, the CBO announced that while the changes would not increase the number covered or lower the number who lose insurance, it would cost the government more than $150 billion over the next ten years.

It seems that not content with a $1 billion tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, the changes to mollify conservatives provides for another $150 billion plus in tax cuts, none of which will go to anyone but the greediest of the wealthy.

The standard for truth telling in politics, never very high, has now reached a new low with the new President. Outright lying has replaced shading the truth or misleading the public. Case in point is Senator Heller of Nevada in a Town Hall Meeting.

“It's been eight years, eight years since I've heard a treasury secretary talk about economic growth,” Heller said. “They never talked about economic growth. You know what? We didn't have economic growth for the last eight years."

No, your eyes are not kidding you - the line is above zero since 2010
More facts with a liberal bias

Note that this is a totally un-necessary lie. First of all it is a statistical fact that is easily checked. Second, no on disputes that economic growth did not take place, Trump himself allows for that while claiming that he will increase it. So why lie Dean Heller? Oh, maybe you just can't help it, or maybe it is a virus that only infects Republicans seeking re-election or maybe it just feels so good.

As a public service we take on the questions too difficult
for other Forums

Question: Why don’t the House Republicans fear that
Donnie will sponsor candidates against them?

Answer: They recognize him as a bully and bully
are characterized as cowards afraid of a fair fight. Trump will not go after these Republicans
because it would involve stepping up to the plate and facing a pretty strong
opponent. Trump only goes after the weak
and powerless, which explains his attacks on Medicaid.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

If and when a health care bill passes the House the Senate
Republicans want
to rush it through the Senate. The
reason for the haste if obvious, if people understand what is going on they
will oppose it.

“Mitch McConnell is being tasked
with fixing what GOP senators and House members say is a flawed Obamacare
repeal proposal — one with little to no chance of passing in that chamber in
its current form — in a week’s time.

The Senate leader and his deputies
are nevertheless barreling ahead — assuming a health care bill clears the House
Thursday in what’s expected to be a razor-thin vote. Senate leaders say they
have a plan to jam through legislation on a party-line vote next week before
opposition has time to bubble up.”

Now normally Congress holds hearings on major legislation,
giving supporters and detractors a voice in trying to have a rational debate on
the issues. But not this time. The House held no hearings and it looks like
the Senate is also shutting down an free speech on the issue.

Senate Republicans are unlikely to
hold any committee hearings, and many of them haven’t even read what the House
is about to pass. It’s unclear, to put it mildly, how proponents can placate
enough moderates or conservatives to get the bill across the finish line.

But GOP leaders are showing no
signs of applying the brakes.

“We’re not slowing down,” McConnell
said on Tuesday. “We will reach a conclusion on health care next week.”

No, we don’t know what to call this either. But we do know that democracy it ain’t.

In New York
a rule requires large restaurant chains to place a little warning symbol next
to high salt items. This is so diners
can order with knowledge rather than taking in an excessive amount of salt unknowingly. All in all it seems like a
nice thing to do.

The logo of a salt shaker, meant to warn consumers of high sodium content in food, appears on a menu. PHOTO: ANDREW BURTON/GETTY IMAGES

But the trade group for restaurants doesn’t like having to
tell diners there are high salt items on the menu. So
it sued.

The
National Restaurant Association, a trade group, sued the city in 2015, arguing
the Board of Health overstepped its authority in requiring restaurants to post
the warning. A trial court judge ruled for the city last February. The
association then appealed that ruling.

What was their complaint?
Oh, it cost too much to print the little symbols.

Cicely Simpson, the National Restaurant Association’s
executive vice president, said the group would explore all its legal options.
Local sodium rules are costly and onerous, she said. “Instead of confusing
state and local mandates, we believe the best approach to disclosing nutrition
information is the uniformed national menu standard that will go into effect
this year,” she added.

Fortunately the appeals court upheld this common sense
approach.

A panel of justices from the
Appellate Division’s First Department wrote that the saltshaker warnings
provide information but don’t restrict what consumers can buy. The rule,
enacted by the city’s Board of Health, requires restaurants with at least 15
locations nationwide to post saltshaker icons next to items with more than
2,300 milligrams of sodium, the daily recommended limit.

“Notably, the Rule does not
restrict or even regulate what Chain Restaurants may offer for sale,” they
said.

Because it provides
information but doesn’t restrict sales, the rule differs from a proposed ban on
large sugary drinks, which the Court of Appeals rejected in 2014, the panel
wrote.

High salt diets have been shown to be a leading cause of
cardio-vascular disease, the type that can, let’s see, can kill you. So every now and then the good guys do win.

“Don’t you think if I could find out the answers someone
would have told me that” Trump did not say. And he also did not say “Look, I am
the President and that means I can lie at Will (or Sam or Judy)

In order for TrumpTower to have been the
object of surveillance and wire tapping the Justice Department had to be the
one to do it (unless it was the Brits, sorry just kidding). Now apparently unknown to
the President the Justice Department is part of the executive branch of the
government. So if one is President and
if one wants to know if anyone was the target of surveillance as part of an
investigation into Americans acting as agents of foreign government, one just
needs to pick up the phone and ask.

Unfortunately for the current President, if he did such a
thing he would learn that no, there was no wire tapping and that he, the
current President, said was wrong. Since
by definition Trump cannot be wrong, he cannot determine that he was
wrong. So we will have the Congress
trying to investigate (really cover up) the lies here.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Explaining to Them What He Did to Increase Illness and
Disease for Low Income Families

For Paul Ryan, the House plan to eviscerate Medicaid is the
culmination of a lifelong dream.
Harming, even causing the death by lack of health care for low income
people appears to be his holy grail, something he can now see happening. So we wondered how he would explain this to
his children. If they did ask it might
go something like this.

Children: Daddy, what
did you do at work today?

Paul: Well I have
just about completed a law that would leave millions of boys and girls just
like you and their parents without health care.
Everyone is very proud of me. With luck and the good Lord willing over 24 million people will lose health care after we finish.

Children: But what
happens when they get sick?

Paul: They are just
going to have to suffer. See those
people are just lazy and worthless and don’t deserve government supported
health care. Government should not be
providing health care anyway, and if it does it should be only to good
people. And good people are not poor or
disabled.

Children: But mommy
says the government helps provide us with health care help and that is why we have
to go and get shots and can see a doctor when we don’t feel good.

Paul: Well that’s
because I have worked all my life in government, not like those poor people who
have decided to work at low paying jobs.
See government gives me a job because I try to help a lot of rich people
get even richer so they can employ those other people, it’s called trickle down
economics. We help people like our old
friend Mitt make millions a year so he can pay $7.25 an hour for people to
clean his house and fix his pool, although don't tell anyone, but we think they are not legal residents of this country. That's okay, Mitt needs them. Remember,
Mitt has a lot of houses so he employs a lot of maids and cleaning people.

Children: What if
those people get sick?

Paul: Then they can
go and wait in the emergency room and after 8 or 10 hours they may see someone
who can help them. That wait is good for
them, cause if they are just kinda sick and not facing, you know, death and maybe
they will go home and take some aspirin and not bother the good doctors and
nurses who are busy treating people who have real health insurance.

Children: Is that a lot of people?

Paul: Well it’s tens
of millions but I hope the make it a lot more.
We are a very religious family and as you know the Bible tells us that
we help poor people by keeping them from just getting health care and not going
to work just because they are sick or dead.

Children: God must
really love you for doing all this!

Paul: Yeah, we are
kinda special that way. And I just hope when you grow up you can help us take away Medicare from old people. We'll teach them to stand on their own two feet and pay for every dime of their health care. They will be free at least, free of government tyranny giving them health care that only people like us deserve.

Just another group trying to hijack the Constitution
As a member of a religious minority that has been persecuted for about 2,000 years the DPE yields to no one in his zeal for freedom of religion. But ultra fundamentalists have used that principle to try and impose their beliefs on those who have different beliefs. This is not particular to any one religion, fundamentalist Christians want to make the U. S. a 'Christian' nation ruled by biblical law. Fundamentalist ultra orthodox Jews want Israel to be governed by what they and they alone believe Judiasm is. And radical fundamentalist Islamists want to kill anyone who doesn't adhere to their practices.

So now we have the weird story where a very strict Amish group in Kentucky will not prevent their horses from littering the roads with manure because doing so would in their twisted minds impose a burden on their practice of their religion.

"Two Amish men in Auburn, Ky., filed a lawsuit last month saying a city ordinance requiring horses to wear equine diapers—bags designed to catch manure—violated the ability of Amish residents to exercise their religion.

The ordinance, passed in 2014, broadened an existing law mandating the removal of dog waste in public places. The new law, which the city said was spurred by complaints from neighbors about horse manure, requires a “properly fitted collection device” to be placed on all horses walking on the street."

Unknown to almost everyone apparently this along with other nonsense has been an issue elsewhere.

"The equine diaper issue has also come up in Wisconsin, southern Indiana and upstate New York. Many disputes in recent years have centered around whether Amish homes must adhere to building codes, including the installation of smoke detectors."

If it exists Hell is littered with a lot of people, but if it exists one doubts that it is populated with people that installed smoke detectors, you know, the kind that prevent their children from burning to death.

Now one can only hope that this case is dismissed just as fast as humanly possible. The DPE has interacted all of his life with the Amish and the Mennonites and finds they are wonderful, kind, caring and compassionate people worth of great adminiration. But there's always the exception.

What kind of people can call themselves religious who believe one of the commandments is 'Thou shall litter the earth with horseshit'. What kind of people call themselves religous but say they should be allowed to practice in a way that endangers the health of the community and pollutes the environment.

The Wall Street
Journal reports that Trumpie’s pick to head the SEC has been cleared to go
ahead by an ethics review. How do Trump’s
picks do that? By showing that they have
no ethics at all of course, what did you expect.

The WaPo has reported that the current administration will seek deep cuts in the agencies that
work on weather and weather related research and reporting. In Trump’s mind the best way to fight global
warming is to forbid any news about it or climate in general. People can’t be upset if they don’t know
about the coming disaster the Trumpman did not say.

Trump is also wanting
to cut thousands of jobs at the EPA, part of his put America back to
work again by firing people. Apparently the
administration never really understood what the term ‘jobs’ meant when they
promised more of them.

The WaPo is also
reporting that the EPA will pull back on mileage standards that the auto
industry agreed to. There was no support
for the rumor that the EPA wants to cause a gas shortage just so Trump can
fulfill a campaign promise to take over Iraq’s oil as ‘war booty’ which this
nation deserves for de-stabilizing the region and destroying the nation of
Iraq. The administration will deny this claim,
arguing that once the defense buildup is complete the U. S. can take whatever it wants from Iraq with no
need to justify actions.

Lying Attorney
General Sessions is likely to protest charges that he perjured himself in
his confirmation hearing by asking the rhetorical question, “Could I be that
stupid and still be the Attorney General?”
A Fox News Poll found that 67% of Americans thought the answer to that
question was ‘yes’ and majority of Fox News viewers responded that they, the
stupid people of the world needed someone stupid to represent them.

Trump is reported to
be furious that Democrats are not approving appointees that he has not yet
nominated. A team of scholars from the
conservative Heritage Foundation has been rushed to the White House to give the
President a crash course on how Washington
works, included a whole day to explain that the Senate cannot vote on a
position until someone has been nominated for the position.

Arnold Schwarzenneger will not return to
hosting The Celebrity Apprentice in part because no one was ever able to
recognize the celebrities on the show.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Trying to make sense of politics and government these days
is a tricky job. The current
administration is so irrational that trying to find any rationality is a
difficult job for even the smartest pundits.
But fear not, the DPE is here to clear it all up.

Question: Why has President Trumpie put his daughter in
the White House as an adviser?

It turns out that because none of the White House staff and
counselors have any experience or knowledge of governing real people, that
is, people with credentials are refusing to join the team. And the current team has told everyone in no
uncertain terms that they would be embarrassed if real experts came on board. So Ivanka Trump has been chosen so the others
will not feel threatened as they would if someone who was actually qualified
were appointed.

Question: Why won’t Trump say he was wrong about being
wiretapped?

Trump is apparently afraid that if he were to admit he was
wrong on that issue people would expect him to admit when he was wrong on other
issues, and as Trump reportedly said about that “Look, there are only 24 hours
in a day, if I start admitting where I have been wrong I could not get anything
else done.” A number of colleagues
anonymously told the press they thought Trump not getting anything else done
would be a positive.

Question: Why does Paul Ryan want low income people to
do without healthcare?

Ryan once had to wait 4 minutes in a doctor’s office for
treatment of a spinal condition (he lacks one) while the office took care of an
emergency Medicaid patient. He has been
incensed that a poor person with a life threatening condition would get
preference over him and has fought health care for anyone making under $120,000
a year ever since.

Question: Exactly how much damage to national security
did Ms. Clinton having a private e-mail server do?

The news reports that the FBI was signficantly involved in hunting down a thief sounds like good news, but in the case the news reports were about the FBI aggressively pursuing the stolen jersey of Super Bowl winning quarterack Tom Brady.

Uh, folks at the FBI, listen up. There is a lot of crime out there. See if you can't find something better to do, you know, the opioid addiction, the Russia connection, heck even finding out where Sean Spicer buys his suits would be more productive.

Republicans are working their way towards what they call tax reform, what the rest of the world calls tax cuts for the wealthy. First of all they hope Trump doesn't muddy the water with his own plan because he knows even less about taxes than Ryan.

Supporters of Ryan’s proposal are crossing their fingers that Trump doesn’t introduce a detailed tax plan at all, worried it could complicate their work.
Well not to worry Paulie, we think Trumpie is too concerned with fictional wiretappings to think about tax policy.

And Ryan wants a border tax, which is a huge tax on imports. No logic, just religious faith.